"You were trying to take them alive."
"Mm. It wasn’t easy."
They must have had a rough time of it.
Changsu shook his head hard.
"Monsters that can use language are rare to begin with, and even when they can, the number with enough intelligence to actually communicate is far smaller."
"So that’s why you went looking for the Green Manes."
"Exactly."
It is good enough that there are monsters who can use language.
But monsters capable of actual communication are not going to be common.
Just finding such monsters would have been toil in itself.
The Green Manes’ location was not only certain.
They supposedly learned language to use humans as slaves.
So of course they would have intelligence to the level of communication.
"Like I said, it was a hard job. In the first place, the only ones who learned a language were the shamans. Their numbers are scarce compared to ordinary warriors. And even then, not every shaman learned a language."
"Well, not every shaman would have been assigned to handle slaves."
"If that were the only problem, we’d count ourselves lucky, but I don’t know what kind of pride these bastards have."
He clicked his tongue.
Changsu drew a finger across his own throat.
"Warriors or shamans alike, the moment they are caught they try to kill themselves before you can question them."
"Tsk."
It may be talk about monsters.
Even so, I could not help feeling a twinge of displeasure.
‘Suicide.’
No matter how strong their pride is.
It is a choice I cannot understand.
Monsters wholly different from humans.
Their way of thinking and feeling must be quite different from ours.
‘Disgusting.’
I can guess a little at the reason for this disgust.
‘Because I am the kind of person who wants to live more than anyone.’
When I see those who toss their lives away easily.
I feel unending disgust.
The thing I fear most in the world.
They accept it or carry it out without batting an eye.
When I see that.
Maybe I feel inferior.
"Anyway. After all that trouble, the one we barely managed to take alive is that one."
"You pulled it off somehow."
"Mm. I don’t know why, but it was wandering the outskirts alone."
"Sorry? Alone?"
I could not help finding Changsu’s words odd.
Shamans are a rear-line support role.
In human terms they are closer to mages.
‘Why would a shaman who should be operating with the vanguard and the warriors be alone?’
No.
That part bugs me.
But there is something that bothers me more.
I looked at Changsu with eyes full of questions.
"How did you even do it?"
"Hm? How, you say. You can see it. We grabbed the shaman going by and somehow gagged him before he could kill himself."
"Not that. I’m asking how you were able to move around inside the Green Manes’ territory."
"Huh. What do you mean by that?"
They suffered damage in the war with us.
Even so, they are a very large force.
And they suffered a great ordeal within their own land thanks to Ariella.
Thinking about it sensibly.
Right now it would be normal for them to be pouring enormous attention into internal defense.
‘Changsu’s guild is sizable in its own way, but you cannot just stroll around deep in enemy territory.’
Yet not only did they tear around inside at will.
They even tried to kidnap shamans who are clearly valuable assets on their side.
And from the sound of it, it was not just once or twice.
After many trials and errors, that monster must be the one they finally succeeded with.
"That sort of thing seems hard even for our guild."
It would not be outright impossible.
If you took elite troops from the unit you could do it.
‘Aside from the fact that the moment you do that you will be discovered and a large-scale war will obviously break out.’
Which is why.
I cannot help being puzzled.
"How did you do it, exactly."
"Mm? Now that you say it, I suppose that is true. But even if you put it like that."
It was a natural question to me.
Apparently it was not to Changsu.
When he heard me.
Only then did he seem to register the issue.
"Well, how should I put this."
Changsu scratched his head and answered.
"It was more walkable than you would think."
"Sorry? No. That makes no sense."
"I understand it sounds strange, but that really is all. If it had been hard to move around, we could not have entered in the first place."
That is fair enough.
‘No, can that be right?’
It is not like Ariella slipping in alone and hidden.
Changsu’s group would have moved in at least dozens.
An openly moving hostile force inside their land.
They just missed that?
‘Unless the damage we dealt back then was far worse than we thought?’
Even if so.
These are enemies kidnapping inside their territory.
I do not think we inflicted so much damage that they could not handle such enemies.
"Well. Like I said, I really don’t know. So."
He shrugged.
Changsu walked up to the monster and laid a hand on its body.
"For the details like that, shouldn’t we ask this one."
"Krrk."
The moment Changsu’s hand touched.
The monster, which had been unconscious and breathing harshly, opened its eyes.
"Grkk. Gkh. Krrk."
Its gaze was full of hostility.
It glared at Changsu as if to kill him.
Even with a gag in its mouth, it was obvious it was trying to spit out rough words.
"Ha ha ha. Well. As you can see, it hates me so much it looks ready to kill me."
"It does look that way."
It seemed the shaman’s body was on the weaker side, so it could not break its bonds.
If it were a warrior, it would already have shattered the chains and hurled itself at Changsu.
"Anyway, taking it was good, but there is a problem."
"A problem?"
"This thing has no intention of opening its mouth."
"Hm. Are you sure you can even talk to it? You said there were many shamans who did not learn a language."
"No. I can say for sure that is not it. We have already confirmed it can talk."
"Then what? You just said it refuses to speak. How did you confirm that."
"Ah. That."
Maybe it was something awkward to say.
Changsu scratched his cheek.
‘Ah.’
Come to think of it.
I can see why.
It was a kidnapping for information to begin with.
Our unit is a bit of an exception.
But the most efficient and common way to extract information from a kidnapped target is.
‘Torture.’
I wondered if after torture so brutal you could barely tell others about it.
They had at least confirmed it could speak.
"When we tried to take it alive, it hurled some spectacular curses at us."
"Ah."
Apparently.
That was not the reason.
"Parents of course, forebears too, it dragged them all out to insult in style."
"..."
"These days even middle and high school kids would have a hard time cursing that floridly. It was quite the talker."
They say when you learn a foreign language, you learn the curses first.
I guess monsters are the same way.
"There is one bit of luck. I don’t know why, but even if you remove the gag this one does not try to kill itself. But that is as far as it goes. No matter what we ask it, it will not answer."
"Hmm."
"The best we can do is torture, but with their pride, I doubt they will spit information because we torture them. They would rather choose suicide. That is when we thought of you. You folks who shone in that dungeon; we figured you might have a way."
After saying that.
Changsu glanced at Seo Suhyeok.
"That is the gist of it. Well? Not enough to get me shot, right?"
"Hmph. Good. We do not lose a friendly force then."
"Ha ha. You never give an inch."
At any rate.
I understood why Changsu had brought this monster.
"You want us to pull something out of this one."
"Mm. You folks seemed to have your own questions, and if they are monsters, not humans, maybe they know something."
But.
I was a little skeptical at that.
‘Whether there is anything useful.’
I cannot speak for the others.
Ariella once had a portion of the Green Manes under her control.
In that process Ariella even learned their language.
‘If there had been anything useful, we could have gotten it then.’
In the end, all the monsters under that control were exterminated.
We could not ask anything.
But Ariella, in her own way, tried to extract information from them.
In fact.
We already know roughly where their base is located and so on.
We have already acquired rough information on the Green Manes.
And.
According to what Ariella felt then.
‘These ones are not as civilized as you would think.’
Even if we pry at this one.
How much could we really get.
That is what I find myself thinking.
"Well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Let’s try it."
"Be careful."
I stepped up to the creature and bent down.
"Let’s start with something easy."
I pulled the gag from its mouth and spoke.
"Name."
[email protected][email protected][email protected]?#$!?!
When I asked its name.
It screamed in a language I could not understand.
"..."
It shouted so roughly.
Sitting close, my face was practically plastered with its spit.
And.
When I heard that.
Smack.
"That was a bit much."
"Krrk."
I smacked the thing’s head once, hard.
Then I put the gag back in its mouth.
"Master?"
‘Hm?’
As I wiped the monster’s spit off my face.
A puzzled voice came from within the shadow.
‘I do not know about me, but you cannot understand their language. How did you know it was cursing.’
‘No. I did not understand it.’
‘What?’
‘I do not know what it said, but curses you can tell from the vibe.’
‘...’
I could feel exasperation from within the shadow.
In any case.
The thing had no intention of answering meekly.
"Ha ha. Well, you can assume it has been like that the whole time."
"It did not sound like Korean."
"It probably heard us talking. It does not want to say what we want to hear. Insufferably arrogant thing."
"Ah. I get the idea."
Anyway.
Hmm.
"Changsu."
"Mm?"
"Did you feed it on the way here."
I wondered if there was any need to force it.
But since we said we would try with nothing to lose.
Making a few more attempts could not hurt.
"No. It fought too hard for us to think of feeding it. Why."
"Good. That was the right call."
"...?"
They say it has a strong sense of pride.
They say it has the nerve to fear death less than giving its enemies what they want.
‘We will see how long that lasts.’
Open wide.
I will make ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) you the chattiest creature in the world.
